Acknowledgments

TO MINKA DISBROW, my beloved grandmother. Thank you for living a story that needed to be told, and for loving our family so well, for so long. Words cannot express how much I love and admire you, but here are 86,000 of them that sure tried.

Ruth Lee, you would be eternally dear to me just for the joy you’ve brought Grandma, but I’ve adored you from the moment we met. Thank you for being so generous with your story —and your life.

In so many ways this book would not exist without Brian Lee. Thank you for finding Grandma, for loving her, for wanting this book to happen. Thank you for your financial support; your tireless work to get me a hundred little details, at all hours; your commitment to accuracy. I only wish we’d known each other all along.

To my writing partner, Cindy Coloma. I could not have hoped for a more perfect person with whom to share this journey. Thank you for caring about this story, for talking me off a few ledges, for shouldering work when I couldn’t. Your abilities amaze me.

Dianna Disbrow Huhn. Thank you, Mom, for providing so many specifics for the Minneapolis and Oakland portions of this story, even the painful sections. And thanks for your unflagging encouragement and prayers during this whole journey.

To my first and best friends —my brothers, Gary Huhn and Grant Huhn. Thank you for sharing my life, for loving Grandma’s story, and for being my biggest fans, always.

Charles Lee, Debbie Lee, Mark Lee, Tim Lee, Carrie Lee, Jay Lee. Thank you for sharing your memories with me, and for being such an integral part of this story. And special thanks to Mark for verifying the technical aspects of the shuttle launch so I didn’t look like a clown.

Dawn Disbrow Medina. Thank you for patiently answering questions and filling me in on your years with Grandma. And thank you for faithfully watching over her, all these years.

Thanks to Teresa Lee for supporting this project —and Brian —in every way, for reading drafts and correcting errors, and for being such a sweetheart.

Jerry Huhn. I have no doubt that my stubborn ability to keep going with this project was due to years spent running wind sprints in the rain, under your expert coaching. Thank you for teaching me how to persevere, and for taking such loving care of my boys on several occasions so I could steal away and work.

Special thanks to both my parents for nurturing my love of reading early on, and therefore giving me the most enduring passion of my life.

To Janet Grant, my stalwart agent, who loved this story as much as I did, and who turned this dream into reality. Thanks for guiding me every step of the way.

To the entire Tyndale House team, who fell in love with Grandma’s story and poured their hearts into bringing it to the world, especially Sarah Atkinson, Kim Miller, and Bonne Steffen, our editors extraordinaire. You made our words clearer and better. And to our designer, Nicole Grimes, whose creativity made this book more beautiful than I could have dreamed.

To my author buddies, especially Karen Spears Zacharias, my first writing mentor, for providing encouragement and much-needed doses of reality; and to Billy Coffey, who read early versions of chapters and told me just to “jump” when I got scared. You both inspire me daily.

To all the brilliant writers whose words have made my life richer in a thousand ways, and especially Rick Bragg, who told me that this story would make a great book and that I should write it.

To Lavelle Huhn, Jason Dougherty, Catherine Huhn, and Samuel and Samantha Koch, who have made our family so much better.

Rodney Schoen. Thank you for giving us a glimpse into Grandma’s childhood with your personal photos, and for telling me more about Uncle’s family.

To all my friends, who tolerated my virtual disappearance during the last two years and cheered me on, especially Laurel Lundberg, Sunia Gibbs, Wendy Dillree, Karen Streelman, Kim Spalding, April White, Tami Richardson, Connie Helland, and Heidi Larson, who fed my family, cleaned my home, and killed house spiders so I could work in peace. And to Susan Askew, who would have loved all this more than anyone.

To my in-laws, Dave and Betty LaGrow, for entertaining and feeding my guys countless times while I was holed up working.

Thanks to the many people who assisted my research and answered my questions, including Marcia Sylvester, Zion Lutheran Church; Kathie Allstot, Riverside Cemetery; Pastor Joanne Nagele, Warner Lutheran; Ken Webb; Pam Videen, Minnesota Historical Society; L. J. Dean, National Railway Historical Society; William Brown, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Dale Kaiser, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Diana Farmer, National Climatic Data Center; Gretchen Sharp, Aberdeen Public Schools Foundation; Jeannet Bouma, Community of Heerenveen; Mary T, Find a Grave.

Barbara Rolph, for checking (and correcting) our German phrases, and Janneke Jobsis-Brown, Annelien de Haan, and Bouk de Vries Jobsis, for setting our Dutch phrases right.

My deepest thanks, forever, to my husband, Dan, for loving me, for shouldering so much extra work, and for never once acting like this dream was crazy; and to my boys, Cameron and Connor, for giving up “Mommy time” during this project, and for being my joy. Home, for me, is wherever the three of you are.

And, above all, eternal thanks to God, whose book this really is.